You need to overcome learning challenges, be tenacious in seeking understanding, and share what you know with others. That's what makes for a confident high performing employee.
**
For better or worse, you want people's perception of you to be accurate.
To do that, you need to figure out how to understand the concepts or bigger picture and demonstrate that understanding through your actions.
To be able to do that, you really need to figure out how to best understand and retain the stuff you're having a hard time with. That probably means being more proactive and noisy in meetings where these concepts are shared. If you don't understand something, you have to advocate for yourself and fill in your gaps by asking.
When your peers are thinking about your performance they will either see you making choices that are well informed and aligned with the bigger picture, or they'll see you making choices that are just guesses.
Right now, you should be figuring out why you're having a hard time understanding and retaining things. Start with a good foundation. Healthy sleep, exercise, and anything physiological that stands in the way (learning disabilities, ADHD, dislexia, etc.).
Then focus on the process. Does taking notes work? What if you record meetings and slowly listen later on, repeating parts as needed?
If you learn well with guidance and curriculum, seek out professional courses to help you learn. If the knowledge you're lacking is very domain specific or unique to your company then make the curriculum yourself. Make a goal of teaching other people the things that are unique to your company and not only will you learn it, you'll teach others.
I can't stress this enough: ask questions, take copious and clear notes so you don't need to keep asking the same questions. Ask more questions if you have gaps. Restate the concept out loud, then ask if you're getting the concept. Repeat until you've got it. If you approach it with the intent of helping others learn, you'll be much more diligent about reducing complex ideas into easier to understand chunks.
You'll also be helping your peers. Someone in the room will inevitably be just as confused as you were before you began asking questions to help improve your understanding. Do you think those peers will think you're not capable, or do you think they'll be grateful you had the guts to ask?
If you're working for a company where asking questions is discouraged then maybe start looking for a new role somewhere else. It's not just a red flag for how your experience will be at that company, it's a massive red flag for the viability of the entire company. A company that isn't an expert within their domain is one that's always reacting to market forces, but never leading.
Don't convince yourself that asking questions is a sign of weakness. It's part of your job.
I literally just got out of an hour long meeting with a CTO of a fintech company where all she did was ask questions. The reason: she needed help getting up to speed on something that wasn't even all that difficult to understand but had a broad impact on her organization. It's part of her job to ask questions so she can make informed decisions.
You need to overcome learning challenges, be tenacious in seeking understanding, and share what you know with others. That's what makes for a confident high performing employee.
**
For better or worse, you want people's perception of you to be accurate.
To do that, you need to figure out how to understand the concepts or bigger picture and demonstrate that understanding through your actions.
To be able to do that, you really need to figure out how to best understand and retain the stuff you're having a hard time with. That probably means being more proactive and noisy in meetings where these concepts are shared. If you don't understand something, you have to advocate for yourself and fill in your gaps by asking.
When your peers are thinking about your performance they will either see you making choices that are well informed and aligned with the bigger picture, or they'll see you making choices that are just guesses.
Right now, you should be figuring out why you're having a hard time understanding and retaining things. Start with a good foundation. Healthy sleep, exercise, and anything physiological that stands in the way (learning disabilities, ADHD, dislexia, etc.).
Then focus on the process. Does taking notes work? What if you record meetings and slowly listen later on, repeating parts as needed?
If you learn well with guidance and curriculum, seek out professional courses to help you learn. If the knowledge you're lacking is very domain specific or unique to your company then make the curriculum yourself. Make a goal of teaching other people the things that are unique to your company and not only will you learn it, you'll teach others.
I can't stress this enough: ask questions, take copious and clear notes so you don't need to keep asking the same questions. Ask more questions if you have gaps. Restate the concept out loud, then ask if you're getting the concept. Repeat until you've got it. If you approach it with the intent of helping others learn, you'll be much more diligent about reducing complex ideas into easier to understand chunks.
You'll also be helping your peers. Someone in the room will inevitably be just as confused as you were before you began asking questions to help improve your understanding. Do you think those peers will think you're not capable, or do you think they'll be grateful you had the guts to ask?
If you're working for a company where asking questions is discouraged then maybe start looking for a new role somewhere else. It's not just a red flag for how your experience will be at that company, it's a massive red flag for the viability of the entire company. A company that isn't an expert within their domain is one that's always reacting to market forces, but never leading.
Don't convince yourself that asking questions is a sign of weakness. It's part of your job.
I literally just got out of an hour long meeting with a CTO of a fintech company where all she did was ask questions. The reason: she needed help getting up to speed on something that wasn't even all that difficult to understand but had a broad impact on her organization. It's part of her job to ask questions so she can make informed decisions.